Growing Social Capital

Social Capital for Jobs4You:

1) Michael is a domain expert in my industry because he works in Human Resources for his company and deals with hiring and firing people everyday. Michael is my close family friend so I contacted him through his cell and he was happy to share some information on how to find the best people for the right job. He taught me how to properly interview potential customers and some red flags to look for in order to minimize our losses when deciding who to employ. Michael exploited an opportunity for Jobs4You because he helped facilitate how we will hire and fire employees and the best ways to do so without backlash. He made me realize that our company needs a lot of growth and we have much competition, but if we focus on getting the right people who will stay with us for awhile we can turn a profit.

2) I contacted County Executive Laura Curran through email and asked her to answer a few questions for me. Laura acts as my market expert because in the market for jobs who better to contact than someone in office that knows about our county's unemployment rate and ask her how she feels about my ideas. I went online and researched who was elected for Nassau County in Long Island, NY and found Laura Curran's information. She went on to tell me that unemployment has reach an all time high and that she appreciates my efforts to combat this problem. I asked her if she felt that the government would be able to work with our team on generating projects and jobs and if my ideas would be successfully implemented into society. Laura, knowing that my idea is for this class, went on to say that hypothetically local governments would be willing to work with our team as long as we reach out to them in a orderly manner and give them enough time to fulfill our requests. Laura definitely enhanced my perception of my idea by giving me confidence as well as providing me with other contacts in this field.

3) The most important supplier in my industry would be the unemployed people's themselves. Unlike a typical brick and mortar business/idea, my company doesn't have typical suppliers so I had to think out of the box with this one. I interviewed my cousin Amy who recently lost her job at Fairway due to closing stores on Long Island. Amy was eager to tell me all the reasons why she would and wouldn't apply for a job through Jobs4You. She claims that although our service offers a greater variety of jobs than if she went out and looked for herself, she would be weary to employ with us because we take a percentage of her profits. After talking with Amy for some time, I realized that instead of taking a percentage of profits, we should charge the employer a flat fee if they need employees through us. This way we still are getting paid but we will retain employees/customers much easier. Amy helped to exploit an opportunity where we needed it most, in keeping customers happy and with money in their pockets.

Reflection: Overall I enhanced my business plan after reaching out to some key players in my industry. I feel that after this activity I am more prepared for networking and feel confident that in the future I could rely on these people to back my ideas and give me feedback. This experience differed from past networking experiences because this time I had an idea to share and talk about rather than repeating my skill set and job experience to them. I felt less intimidated than usual and felt that everyone I spoke to was really into my ideas!